Our Resin Manufacturer of the Year isM Renaud MangallonofSharkit, maker of many fine prototype jet aircraft and unusual models of rare and hard-to-find subjects. Please visit the website at:www.sharkit.com.

Renaud made our first kit, the Gloster CXP-1001 in 1/72, possible by stepping in when things were a bit difficult with IRMA at the beginning. He also cast our second kit, the Shenyang JJ-1. There are many interesting new kits coming from Sharkit, which also handles Dujin, Kampffleiger,Mach 2 and IRMA lines.

We at IRMA deeply appreciate him!

The Man BehindSharkit, M. Renaud Mangallon.

For our very first interview, the producer ofSharkit has kindly consented to answer a few questions for us.

I started by helping my cousin Franky, who was a kit collector and decided to do by himself what he couldn’t find elsewhere, especially missiles and X-planes. By the way he did some molds and started to sell to collector friends.... some classical garage work story I guess! Then Franky got a job as a bush pilot in Africa and went on alone . . .Sharkit always misses him ...

Why early jet aircraft? Because I discovered a kit of the Hörten 229 and this brought me back to modelling, an activity I stopped when I was maybe 17 or 18 years old. What an amazing machine, and its shape . . . organic!! And the period was the good time of many experimentation’s and discovering; you know this unique taste, the taste of the first time . . .

IRMA: How do you select the subject for your next production?

A kind of deep alchemy, but probably the most important vector is encouragement and interest of people. Not in quantity, but in quality.

Also important, the discovering elements: if I discover nothing, if there is nothing to discover to customers, if there is no dynamic imagination and no creativity, I don’t do it. Human beings are not copy-machines.

Ah, also one last and definitively important thing: it must "avoir de la gueule" -being terrific, good looking-; if it’s ugly, no way.

IRMA: How long does a project typically take? Do you do several at one time?

Usually 2 or 3 almost at the same time and 2 or 3 others left very close to the work-bench.

To give an idea, I release maybe one new model each month, sure I do other things, I don’t spend my full day just doing a new model. To make a new model means less time for casting old models: that’s why many oldSharkits are not available anymore, even if new coming customers ask for them. I cannot maintain the full range AND release new models.

IRMA: What kind or research does a project require? How long does it take?

It takes many hours, spanning on weeks, months, or years.... Books, mags, microfilms, personal pics or photos, consultation with specialists... or sometime just bad three-views! It’s a "net" matter.

IRMA: What do you recommend to people that are new to resin kits? What is the best approach to their first time of building a resin cast kit?

But something always forgotten is LIGHT: Each time its possible, use natural light. Our eyes are measure instruments set along million of years for natural light, and no artificial light can match (at least nothing easy to find for the individual).

Fine art painters are always looking for good "lighted" places, isn’t it true? (And is modelling something other than popular art? And are we not, all of us, looking for Light??)

IRMA: Finally, do you have any closing thoughts that you would like to share with IRMA and its members?

Welcome! Willkommen! Bienvenue! Bienvenudo!

Thank you for your time!

Model by Zane R Nobbs

Here is the newSharkitDouglas D-558-III Skyflash Model 671 in 1/72. This was the original design from the late 1940s that was later superceded by the Model 684 put out byANiGRANDCRAFTSWORK.

This kit is well researched, parts fit good and there was minimal sanding, filing and filling needed. Landing gear and nose probe are metal with vacuformed canopy.

Below is the Sharkit Sanger-Bredt Antipodal Bomber in 1/72. A hollow resin kit with solid parts and well worth the price, time and effort for this rare aircraft!

Designed by Dr. Eugene Sanger and his wife, Dr. Irina Bredt, in the late 1930s, this aircraft came to prominence with Adolph Hitler's wish to destroy capitalism by bombing Wall Street and communism with the destruction of Moscow. The plan was to launch the aircraft from Germany into space, where it would skip on the atmosphere until reaching the U.S.A. There it would drop a large type explosive on New York City, then proceed onward around the globe until reaching a halfway point such as Guadalcanal. It would be refueled and rearmed in the Empire of Japan then continue on its return to Berlin, dropping a second incendiary device on Moscow along the way. Building had actually begun when the war ended. The airframe was taken by the Soviets.

Model by Zane R Nobbs

The Sharkit Keldysh-Bondaryuk Sub-Orbital Bomber in 1/72 with pvc/resin ramjets makes a very large and impressive model. This required metal reinforcements for engine support.

This was Joseph Stalin's continuation of this project with the aim of reaching the U.S.A. from space where retaliation was deemed impractical. Designer Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh redesigned the engines adding ramjets by Professor Mikhail Makarovich Bondaryuk which would enable the aircraft to make one continuous circuit of the globe, non-stop. The project was cancelled upon Stalin's death.

Model by Zane R Nobbs

This is theDujin1/72 F+W Emmen N-20.2 Arbalete "Crossbow" which is available throughSharkit.The first version was tested in the late 1940s as a fighter concept aircraft for the Swiss Air Force. Switzerland was the 10th nation to put its own jet into the air. In addition to the two engines top-side were two below. Very similar to some of the late-war German jets.

This kit is very well moulded, with clean panel lines and extremely detailed landing gear and cockpit interior.

Model by Zane R Nobbs

Also available from Sharkit, the Dujin 1/72 F+W Emmen N-20.10 Aiguillon "Pivot." This was the final project in the N-20 series. The full-sized version re-arranged the four engines side-by-side for a more efficient aircraft. In the end the jet was rejected in favor of a more conventional layout and due to the expense.

Typical of Jean Pierre Dujin and Sharkit models, this aircraft is well documented, nicely detailed and makes a very rare, unusual kit when finished.

Model by Zane R Nobbs

A very special "THANK YOU!" goes to Sharkit for the first IRMA kit of the Gloster CXP-1001 in 1/72. When financing became too expensive to go with our original company proposal, Sharkit was there to help us out!

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